With the release of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, we turn our eyes once again to the Solanus Galaxy and the chance to play with some truly awesome weaponry. Insomniac Games’ venerable creation is many things: endlessly fun, full of adorable combat robots, filled with great characters and stories. But most of all, the Ratchet & Clank series is a virtual arsenal of some of the most inventive, enjoyable and hilarious weapons in the history of gaming.

The challenge for Insomniac has always been to top whatever they did in the previous game, and for nearly a decade they’ve succeeded so brilliantly that many of the series’ best guns have inspired what should probably be considered unique classes of weapons. Each Ratchet & Clank installment has distinguished itself with an array of powerful, upgradable slaughter-dispensers – and hey, doesn’t that kind of sound like a name they’d choose? – that deal out astonishing carnage and hilarity in equal measure.

We think it’s time we took a closer look at that history of dangerous, wonderful toys. Here are The 10 Coolest Weapons from the Ratchet & Clank Series.

10) Ratchet’s Omniwrench

When we first meet Ratchet at the beginning of Ratchet and Clank, he’s living on the planet Veldin working as a mechanic. It makes sense then that his first and most constant weapon is his Omniwrench. As befits one of the oldest recorded tools, it’s probably the second most useful thing ratchet has, after Clank’s friendship of course. A convenient enemies-killing bludgeon, it’s also good for unscrewing bolts (useful in puzzle solving), bashing boxes for money and being thrown like a boomerang. In later games, the Omniwrench could be upgraded to send a seismic blast that can break every box in a given area, magnetically attract all bolts (which makes finding money considerably easier) and eventually, to activate an electrical tether used to unlock doors or throw objects.

Here’s a video showing not only how awesome it is, but a cheat for getting a giant version.

9) The Suck Cannon

First introduced in Ratchet & Clank, the suck cannon is a very simple concept: a deadly vacuum cleaner. It sucks your enemies up and then, once full, expels them as unwilling projectiles at your other enemies, which has the benefit of being both fun and cruel at the same time. Starting with Up Your Arsenal, it could be upgraded to the Vortex Cannon, which shoots enemies out as flaming comets.

Why yes, that is awesome. Here’s a walkthrough video that gets you to the Suck Cannon’s wining ways.

8) The Bouncer

Introduced in Going Commando, the bouncer doesn’t eject people from clubs. It’s a giant, spikey bomb that released a shower of tiny little bombs whenever it explodes. Skip to amoubt minute 9:30 to see it in action.

7) The Mag-net Launcher

An unsung hero of Tools Of Destruction, the Mag-Net launcher is one of the most useful weapons in the game. It shoots ionized mineral orbs linked in an electromagnetic net that stops enemies in their tracks while dealing them considerable damage as they wait for the net to exhaust itself. You can let them soak in pain or take them out with another weapon while they’re immobilized, and it even works on Boss Characters (though for a much shorter period of time). When you upgrade it to the Mag-Net Cannon, it becomes the weapon of choice for taking out pesky, yet easy to kill enemies you’d rather not fight hand to hand or use more powerful guns on. And it just looks cool.

Here’s the in-game infomercial.

6) Weather Weapons

Tools of Destruction also introduced the series’ first weather-based weapon, the Tornado Launcher. It literally sends a Tornado screaming at your enemies, sucking them up and spinning them around like so much trailer park debris. It sadly wasn’t back for A Crack In Time, but All-4-One has the remarkable Thundersmack, which generates Storm Clouds that rain lightning on your foes.

Gears of War, Bioshock, Dragon Age, Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted… Just how do developers name their games?

We at GameFront have put together this comprehensive guide to naming your video game. By following our simple flowchart, you too can create games with such imaginative titles as God of War, Mortal Kombat, F.3.A.R., and Final Fantasy.

Because our flowchart possesses too much awesomeness to be contained within the frail boundaries of this column, you’ll need to click on the preview below to view the full-sized beast.